I had been on vacation last year, and the most important aspect of that trip I vividly remember was the rock hopping. Beautiful sandy beaches extended out into the blue ocean.The beach rocks in all their shapes and sizes lay out there for at least a mile as they eventually formed the sea barrier with coastline. Jagged, sharp, smooth, flat, large, small, brown, grey, wet, dry,oval, square, rectangular, some up and down at different levels. They all sat there waiting to climbed. So that is exactly what I did. I jumped from rock to rock, watching my footing carefully, but very engrossed in the actual jumping and landing, obviously one wrong step and you fall on the wet rock. Before I knew it i had managed to traverse a kilometer. I paused to get my breath. I looked around and I realized I was out quite far on to a rock jetty into the ocean, leaving land some ways away. The view was breath taking as I was surrounded by only ocean. I sat down on the rocks and took it all in. Several things dawned on me.

Firstly, I was so focussed on the act of jumping and looking at the rocks, I did not see where my excitement and exercise was taking me. I was not focussed on the direction just the journey and even though I was in the moment and feeling very alive, I was not concentrating on my surroundings. I realized I had to find the balance  between being in the moment and seeing the big picture. But the jumping was so much fun, that I was really alive.  So being in the moment, makes you feel alive, which in turn makes you happy and fun. Doing what you love to do, and having fun doing it, makes you more alive.

Secondly, having reached the end of the rocks and found myself at this juncture with the ocean view, I decided to take it all in. Sometimes life takes you in directions where you did not intend but by being in the moment you are going to reach a good destination.  You are inherently being driven by yourself to where you wish to go by your own intentions, whether you are aware of it or not.  When you get to the destination, enjoy it, regardless of your original plans, since the universe sometimes helps you when you really are least expecting it.

The following days, I decided to have the same fun experience, and out I went each day with the same vigor. To my surprise I discovered that despite the destination was the same, the path I took was different each time. The rocks I was leaping onto were different each day. Sometimes I went further in one direction then turned towards another and sometimes I was able to track a faster course. It all depended on my moment to moment reactions to where I was going and the footing on the rocks before re-leaping. There was no fear in the decisions, and so each leap was a fresh calculated spontaneous successful course correction. This is the same in life when we have a plan to succeed and have a goal in mind yet the path to that goal varies each day. However with the right intentions, and clarity of thought, and pure of heart,  the path becomes amorphously more shaped and direct, and attainable. Just do not forget to enjoy the journey and the destination.  Look up from the rock hopping from time to time and know your position in relation to your surroundings and then happily continue. With the pure intention you will get to where you wish to go, with a impure intention you may get some where, not just where you think you ought to be, and perhaps hurt a lot of others and yourself on the way.

Rock hopping was fun, now let us try rock climbing and get to the top.